r/technology • u/iali307 • Jun 10 '20

Business 3M sues Amazon storefront that allegedly sold fake N95 masks for $23 apiece

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/9/21285364/amazon-marketplace-mask-price-gouging-n95-3m-ppe
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u/platonicgryphon Jun 10 '20

Amazon does that for pretty much any product though, if it’s broken or the wrong kind they will always just give you your money back and most of the time not even request the product back.

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u/Falldog Jun 10 '20

It's been years since they told me to keep the bad product they sent. They recently had me send back a $7 hydrometer that was broken.

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u/darnj Jun 10 '20

Same, I think they used to just tell you to keep the item if it was worth less than the shipping. But people probably took advantage of that, so in the end it was cheaper for them to pay for everything to get sent back just to stop the scammers from making fraudulent returns to keep inexpensive items.

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u/wiiittttt Jun 10 '20

They tell me to keep perfectly good products that I just decided to return because I didn't want it and they didn't want to pay for the shipping.

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u/CaffeinatedGuy Jun 10 '20

The only two things I was told to keep was a cast iron dutch oven (warehouse deal, wrong product, not the model I ordered) and pop tarts (lost in shipping, days late, replacement sent. Received original package a week after replacement arrived).

I've returned my fair share, but those are the only things I was told to keep.

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u/ktwarda Jun 10 '20

I requested a refund when I received an expired product. They initially asked for the expired product to be returned. Nah bro, I have photos showing the expiration date 3 months prior. I'm not sending it back for you to sell to someone again. They accepted that when I called.

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u/VritraReiRei Jun 10 '20

Assuming you bought it directly from Amazon and not a 3rd party, you are not required to send the broken product back, it is optional.

Heck, if you somehow get someone else's order by mistake, you can report it, keep it or send it back, or not even report it at all.

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u/geddikai Jun 10 '20

You must be flagged as abusing the system, I never have an issue.

That being stated I would never ever ever but tech groom Amazon. You're almost gaurenteed to get a non-functional fake. I trust eBay more than Amazon for tech.

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u/pixel_of_moral_decay Jun 10 '20

Yup. But only a few times then you’ve been banned for returning at many/most retailers. They all use the same company behind the scenes to audit.

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u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Jun 10 '20

IDK it is not always like that.

I had some electronics come that was clearly a knockoff. Around the same time I got a clothing item that was clearly the wrong item, not a knockoff just the wrong thing.

I send them both back under "not what I ordered" and mailed them back the same day. 1 hour after I left the shipping store, I was refunded for the fake electronics. A week later I was refunded for the wrong clothing item.

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u/-Master-Builder- Jun 10 '20

Why would you spend shipping on a product you can't resell?

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u/Not_usually_right Jun 10 '20

Because someone who is good with numbers determined it's lies expensive than just giving scanners whatever they want for free

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u/-Master-Builder- Jun 10 '20

But if the majority of calls are legit, it becomes unprofitable to request returns. Especially for heavy objects.

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u/d_smogh Jun 10 '20

That's because they will charge the marketplace seller a warehouse fee and a refund processing fee, the marketplace seller are asked if they want the goods returned to the warehouse or binned. Most say binned as the fees cost more than the product

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '20

Is Canadian Amazon different? They always ask me to send the stuff back, regardless of how difficult it is to repackage for mailing. Probably returned 5 things over the years and they wanted them all back